Good times with an old friend
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 08:42AM Have you ever looked forward to something for a long, long time? Of course you have. You plan and plan and imagine what the day will be like. And if you're like me, sometimes the thing you looked forward to was, well, disappointing or not at all what you thought it would be.
Well, I've been looking forward to meeting my long time blogging friend, Kim, for years (always knew we'd get together sometime/somehow!) and anticipating our time together this past Thursday for months and I can tell you that this was NOT one of those times, although it did not end up entirely as planned!
Meeting Kim was not really like meeting someone new. It was like greeting an old, dear friend that you hadn't seen for a long time. We chatted as if we were making up for lost time, and in a way, we were. The time flew by so fast--that was the only bad thing about it! I wish we had had more time. I wish we lived closer.
There were a few stressful moments leading up to our visit. I had left it until Thursday to clean the house--a formidable chore as I've been fully booked with work and the house suffers when I'm holed up in my studio. I'd gotten most of the food ready by 11 am, when Jake came into the kitchen to take his medication. He had been suffering from a headache for a few days, which we attributed to a new medication he just started on, but when I looked at him I noticed that he had some slight swelling around his eye and cheek. Fearing an abcess or infection of some sort, I called his local cardiologist right away. With his reconstructed heart, I knew that infection that got into the bloodstream was potential life threatening if it lodged in his heart. So, after a flurry of phone calls, we were off to the emergency room. Turns out he has a sinus infection and they got him on an antibiotic right away. The whole thing was wrapped up by three o' clock. Four hours lost and I had everything planned down to the minute.
In the meantime, I had made alternate plans with Dorothy to have her be at my house to meet Kim and Neil by 4 and had decided that if I didn't get home in time to finish preparing dinner, we'd order a couple of pizzas and eat the salad. And if things became even MORE complicated (as they can sometimes end up being with Jake's health) Dorothy would take the Shays and the salad over to her house and order pizza over there.
Now, I'm used to fixing big meals. They don't make me nervous, but that's because I always have things timed down to when I pull the last thing out of the oven. I'm a planner and when my plans are disrupted, I can get really stressed. And the more important the event, the more stressed I would normally be. But in all this, I never once felt stressed. As soon as I knew Jake was sick, I didn't worry about anything else.
Long story short, the house wasn't perfect and I forgot the croutons for the salad, and we had the most wonderful visit together!
I promised a picture, so here goes!
(Ivy had to get into the act, as usual.)
Jake is getting better, too, by the way. God is good!
Reader Comments (8)
I didn't even realize you forgot the croutons! Everything else was so good, who needs croutons?
Love it! Looks like you are all having a good time. I'm glad Jake is getting better, too. Blessings.
Everything in its place and time. You did very well to allow place for grace throughout your day, Kim!
So glad to hear it was well for you- sometimes I lose the enjoyment of the day to the worries for perfection. :)
Great to see you all together having good crouton-less fellowship :-)
Thanks for the photo and for telling us about the day. Next best thing to being there.
We really did have a wonderful time together, didn't we!!! It would have been nice to plan another get-together for the very near future but I'm so thankful for the time we had.
So good to see you, all three of you!
Happy to hear of your wonderful visit Kim! I set here in PA and think (*sigh*) ... whens my turn? You know we all could SKYPE?! I would love to set in on your Bible Study together. Thankful to hear Jake is ok. He is on my prayer list from way back when! So 'Martha' LOL! we all have that in us don't we? Everything turned out just great for you all in your visiting ... I'm sure the food and fellowship was fantastic! But I'm mostly thankful to hear you are all doing well, doggies included ...